One of our favorite locals, the New York Times bestselling author Sarah Addison Allen, returns with a new novel, First Frost! This new book revisits the family so many fell in love with in Garden Spells, the Waverleys. As one of our booksellers says, "Reading a Sarah Addison Allen novel is like visiting with a dear friend - and you don't want that visit to be over." Sarah is the author of five previous novels. We hope you'll join us for this celebration!

We are thrilled to be hosting New York Times bestselling NC novelist, Sarah Addison Allen, for the first time as she discusses her new novel, Lost Lake (St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, $25.99, on sale 1/21/14), a Southern fairy tale of a lost lake, a boy who turned himself into an alligator, and a series of second chances for newly-widowed Kate, her daughter Devin, and her eccentric great-aunt Eby.

Tickets: $35 or $52.55 per person. $35 ticket includes a $10 book voucher. $52.55 ticket includes a copy of Lost Lake.

The first time Eby Pim saw Lost Lake, it was on a picture postcard. Just an old photo and a few words on a small square of heavy stock, but when she saw it, she knew she was seeing her future.

That was half a life ago. Now Lost Lake is about to slip into Eby’s past. Her husband George is long passed. Most of her demanding extended family are gone. All that’s left is a once-charming collection of lakeside cabins succumbing to the Southern Georgia heat and damp, and an assortment of faithful misfits drawn back to Lost Lake year after year by their own unspoken dreams and desires.

It’s a lot, but not enough to keep Eby from relinquishing Lost Lake to a developer with cash in hand, and calling this her final summer at the lake. Until one last chance at family knocks on her door.

Lost Lake is where Kate Pheris spent her last best summer at the age of twelve, before she learned of loneliness, and heartbreak, and loss. Now she’s all too familiar with those things, but she knows about hope too, thanks to her resilient daughter Devin, and her own willingness to start moving forward. Perhaps at Lost Lake her little girl can cling to her own childhood for just a little longer… and maybe Kate herself can rediscover something that slipped through her fingers so long ago.

One after another, people find their way to Lost Lake, looking for something that they weren’t sure they needed in the first place: love, closure, a second chance, peace, a mystery solved, a heart mended. Can they find what they need before it’s too late?

At once atmospheric and enchanting, Lost Lake shows Sarah Addison Allen at her finest, illuminating the secret longings and the everyday magic that wait to be discovered in the unlikeliest of places.

About the author:

Sarah Addison Allen was born and raised in Asheville, NC. She has a B.A. in Literature, a major she chose because she thought it was amazing that she could get a diploma just for reading fiction. It was like being able to major in eating chocolate.

Sarah’s first published book was a Harlequin romance under the pen name Katie Gallagher, but today she is best known for her magical mainstream novels: Garden Spells, The Sugar Queen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, The Peach Keeper, and Lost Lake. The first of her mainstream novels, Garden Spells, didn’t start out as a magical novel. It was supposed to be a simple story about two sisters reconnecting after many years. But then the apple tree started throwing apples and the story took on a life of its own…and her life hasn’t been the same since.

Sarah says it took her twelve years of writing as close to full time as she could manage before she was able to support herself as a writer. And every day for the twelve years, her dad asked her when she was going to get a real job. When people ask her what she would do if not a writer, she has no answer. (fictionaddiction-sc)… (more)

Please join us for The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen. New members are always welcome! Our book clubs are open to the community. You may either purchase the book (a 20% book club discount will be applied), or pay a $5.00 participation fee.

Sarah Addison Allen, the prize-winning author of Garden Spells and The The Sugar Queen, returns with a wonderful, enchanting new novel, The Girl Who Chased the Moon. The bestselling author, who makes her home in Asheville, NC, has created an embracing story "set in a quirky small Southern town with more magic than a full Carolina moon." It's a charming tale all about the unexpected in a town peopled by some of most appealing misfits you'll ever meet. We think it just may be this delightful author's best book yet! (jasbro)… (more)